US Court Reviews Trump Team’s Power to End Legal Protections for 430,000 Migrants

 The Trump administration on Tuesday urged the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston to uphold Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to revoke temporary parole for about 430,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, Reuters reported.

According to the report, DOJ attorney Drew Ensign argued that a lower court ruling limiting Noem’s authority was flawed.

“As the Supreme Court has already implicitly recognised by a lopsided vote, the government is likely to prevail on appeal, either in this court or, if necessary, in the Supreme Court,” Ensign said, per Reuters.

Lower Court Had Blocked Move

In April, US District Judge Indira Talwani stopped the revocation, ruling that Noem couldn’t scrap parole en masse and had to review cases individually. The ruling by Judge Talwani, who was appointed by President Obama, came as a welcome sign for a class of migrants who sued to keep their parole status.

The Biden administration had granted two-year parole to eligible Venezuelans starting in 2022, later expanding it to include Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans. These programs, experts say, were designed to ease pressure on the southern border and shift unauthorised migration into a more orderly process.

Supreme Court Issued Temporary Reprieve

Though judge Talwani’s ruling initially protected the migrants, the US Supreme Court later stayed her decision without explanation, the report said. While Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented in a written opinion, the majority offered no reasoning.

This left appeals court judges in what US Circuit Judge William Kayatta called an “unusual situation.”

“We are asked to look to the Supreme Court for guidance and were given only the bottom line,” he said, according to the AP.

Migrants’ Lawyer Pushes Back

Justin Cox, attorney for the plaintiffs, urged the appeals court not to read too much into the Supreme Court’s stay. “The 1st Circuit would be speculating if it sought to assign a particular meaning to it,” Cox reportedly said.

Even if the appeals court backs judge Talwani, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could try again with a new rule. Still, Cox argued that a win would matter. “At a minimum, it would let our clients and the class members have the dignity of leaving on their own terms,” AP quoted him as saying.

ALSO READ: Trump Administration’s EPA Moves to Overturn Key Climate Change Regulation